Always fun to listen to your fathers deliberations. I visited Svalbard as in june 1980(also on a cruiseship, Vistafjord, I was 13 at the time), a most interesting visit I will never forget. I have some old footage (super 8 film that I transcoded into digital format) if you are interested.

I think that the student guides may have been pulling your fathers leg when talking about the parasites, it may have been somewhat more interesting for the group of elderly cruise passengers that way. Furthermore, if you have a look in the wikipedia article on the Svalbard flora, you will see it actually sports 164 species of plants ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_of_Svalbard)

Frank Ralph Nora rocks. Enjoyed his recanting his trip to Savlbard. I would love to make that treck. I also would love to have rifle packing Pia walk around with me while I deliver mail to the bad neighborHOODS.